Disappointed Utopia

Description

An ethnography of radical philosophy in France. Set in the Paris banlieue, in the decades since 1968. An abandoned book project. https://disappointed-utopia.decasia.org/ Disappointed Utopia About the project Acknowledgements A note on the PDF format Contents Preface Utopias are impossible Reflexivity by the throat Where feminism is not at home Men on pedestals How I met "French Theory" Un mot en français Introduction: Utopia in a Shattered World Radical philosophy in Saint-Denis Utopia and disappointment Emancipation and fire The problem of left patriarchy The problem of a banlieue university A note on methods The shape of the story PART I: HISTORICAL FAILURES Interlude — In the hallway, at the cafeteria 1. Radical Philosophy After 1968 The loss of the revolution May 68: The revolution became immediate Aimé Césaire on the street: Race and impossible identifications Revolutionary philosophy at Vincennes Michel Foucault and the birth of ambivalence The making of a radical reputation Precarious teachers on strike Death and historicity The revolution wrapped in cellophane Interlude — How I was welcomed 2. Left Patriarchy The reflexivity of patriarchy Warmth among men Sketch of a history of gender relations Women on the margins Our aggressors are already inside Interlude — I tried to join a feminist collective 3. The Neocolonial Bargain The spatial fix A “xenophilic agora” An earthquake in Haiti Very happy, very scared I had to take care of them somehow Care labor and the love of the Department Men aren't disposable Bring your own precarity PART II: UTOPIA IN THE PRESENT Interlude — The Basilica and the Stade de France 4. A Banlieue University The space of the masses Securitarian leftism A worn out walk through campus A door towards a thing Not an unmitigated success A student who was trapped Graffiti and recognition A self-managed space and its demise Interlude — Loneliness 5. Thought in Motion Philosophers in the knowledge society Thought goes beyond reality Thinking and writing Traveling by train Thought against world Writing after midnight Laughter and recognition Nomad thought Interlude — The end of the day 6. Whose Utopia Is This? The logics of utopianism Philosophers on strike A declaration of university independence A citation from Socrates Male students against hierarchy Ultra-masculinist attitudes everywhere The logics of disappointment Afterward Utopia is possible Reading theory, reading the university The reflexivity of the Other Mourning and momentum Miscellany What is this miscellany? Ten Disclaimers Brief chronology of the Philosophy Department Sociological sketch of the Philosophy Department In the courtyard A working class philosopher Letter from Georges Navet Le Doctrinal de Sapience A subaltern seminar on the university Marxism and the death of philosophy How philosophers made a living Philosophers on their workspaces At a philosophy conference An aging professor's narrative The status of undocumented students On the archival sources Works Cited Is ending possible?